Highlight Maker Hoops Pro Basketball Game

Seven years ago, we began our quest to develop a faster-playing basketball board game. Most people in the sports simulation game hobby already have a favorite basketball board game that they enjoy greatly. Finding time to play it is where the problem lies. Our goal, then, was to create an alternative hoops game that would capture the spirit and flow of real pro basketball, realistically depict actual player abilities, AND could be played quickly--a forty minute game time, or less. Well, after numerous (well-chronicled) detours and dead-ends, we're happy to present...HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS pro basketball simulation board game!

Highlight Maker Hoops is an all NEW way to enjoy pro basketball on your game table! It’s designed to play like a sports highlight show’s in-depth video recap of a real pro basketball game, ten to fifteen minutes in length. The fast-action cards take you from one highlight to the next, essentially presenting the top ten moments of each period of a pro basketball game. Highlights that result in scores are tracked on the score tracker, which can then be cross-referenced (usually at the end of each period) to generate a running record of the current score. If the score is within four points after the final highlight of the fourth quarter, the game switches to real-time and the final minute is played out in full detail, using the same player cards.

Player abilities are realistically captured and portrayed. Play-making, rebounding, shooting, fouls, free-throws--it's all here! You'll experience dominant performances from star players who take over a game, forehead-slapping blunders from lesser-talented players, and everything in between! The top ball-handlers and defenders will show their stuff, and rebounding kings will snag the key boards. You'll experience "can-you-top-this" duels between hot-shooting stars, featuring everything from massive dunks to stratospheric long-range shots. The top foul drawers will have the same ability in HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS, as will the frequent foul-trouble guys. Free throws are no gimme, either (for most players, anyway). The game is designed to amp up the pressure and significance of free throws, and many a game will be won or lost because of a player's "CLANK factor!"

Momentum is a factor, too--IF a team can take advantage of it! We've incorporated into our hoops game one of the recent innovations of our wrestling game, "Lightning Status," which gives players and teams the ability to get on a roll and pile it on. But it also provides the opportunity to slip up, letting the opponent off the hook and maybe start a roll of their own! Competition-crushing runs, monster comebacks, back and forth trading of sizzling shots, you'll experience it all with HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS!

The fast-action cards paint the story of the game in vivid strokes, so you get the best of the best moments of a real pro basketball game arranged chronologically, just like on ESPN, as well as a realistic outcome, just like the real-life pro league. It'll give you a strong sense of not only WHO won the game, but WHY. Yes, upsets are possible (something that's generally a challenge for hoops games to generate), even monumental "David beats Goliath" outcomes will occasionally occur, which will live on in your sports sim annals. Blowouts are, just as in real life, more common, but HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS pro basketball simulation board game's highlight format makes even the biggest of blowouts relatively painless! Ever played a tabletop hoops game with unevenly matched teams where one team takes an early, insurmountable lead? That can happen in HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS, too--but when it does, it's over in fifteen minutes.

For games that are close, though, HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS' Final Minute sequence ratchets up the drama! The Highlights Rules and ratings serve as a foundation for a full-play, moment-by-moment hoops experience with the clock counting down to zero. With the arena crowd on its feet, you'll watch the final seconds wind down and make decisions about who takes the shot, when, and from where. Fouls or turnovers can send the story in a sharply new direction. But if making decisions like these isn't in your sports game wheelhouse, not to worry: there's a quick-play Final Minute option as well. Like real pro hoops, a close game is never over until the final second has ticked off.

Also, in HMH, the coaches get cards, too! You'll watch as the great coaches rule the sideline with frequent great moves that pay off in baskets, while the poorer coaches struggle to get the troops in synch. Want more coaching options? The game includes colored strategy cards for head-to-head play, letting you demonstrate your own tactical superiority! Perfect for solitaire play, OR head-to-head--that's HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS!

At its heart, though, HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS is a pro basketball simulation game. It's not a score generator. Players and teams will perform realistically, and individual performances--the good, the bad and the ugly--will allow you to craft your own detailed post-game reports to share with the community. While the highlights engine precludes keeping comprehensive individual and team stats, "highlight" stats can be easily kept, using the suggested scoresheet included with the game. you can track individual highlights stats for assists, defensive plays, key shots, rebounds, even free throws.

You can enjoy one-off games between great teams, play through your favorite team's season, re-create any or all of the playoff pairings all the way to the league championship, all in a fraction of the time of a traditional basketball simulation. With a realistic, often memorable narrative unfolding right before your eyes, it's like watching a sports highlight show recap but not knowing the final result beforehand! HIGHLIGHT MAKER HOOPS, where the highlights write themselves as you go along!